Representing Social Action

The paper presents a framework for describing the representation of social action in English discourse, attempting to relate sociologically relevant categories of action to their grammatical and rhetorical realization in discourse. Departing from Halliday's theory of transitivity, it begins by describing 15 types of action and their typical grammatical realizations. It then describes the transformations which social actions can undergo in discourse—transformations such as objectivation, deagentialization, generalization, abstraction and overdetermination. The utility of the framework for critical discourse analysis is demonstrated through the analysis of an Australian newspaper feature critiquing the Australian Government's open door policy towards immigration from developing countries in a way which, the paper argues, is strongly tinged with racist attitudes.